The Kenyan Government will limit it’s participation in the country’s geothermal development, as it seeks to open up the sector to private investors.

Energy Cabinet secretary Charles Keter said that the ministry is currently constrained in funding geothermal projects that are expensive, with most projects taking more than 10 years to be developed.

This, along with the dearth of qualified Kenyan geothermal technicians makes it more costly to produce electricity from geothermal sources, despite geothermal power being cheap, thus the need to open up the sector to the private sector.

“We want Government participation to be limited, which will in the end open up the sector for private investors…this will only be possible if the new policy is fast-tracked,” Keter said at an ongoing geothermal consultative forum in Nairobi, citing slow pace of projects’ delivery as the reason to the change of tune.

The new Energy Bill is currently before the Senate and upon its enactment Independent Power Producers are expected to be the standard model for future renewable energy development.